Comforts

I am currently stuck in the comforts of Olympos and having a hard time getting on with my vacation. But I was able to find a camera chord so here is a photo update

Antalya


Lighting eternal flame rocks


Kadir's Tree Houses

One of the stales at the local market

Fishing at the beach

Climb on

Arriving at the bus station in Antalya I was submerged into the craziness of transportation. There were about 100 different company signs with about 20 different city names spread out over a massive terminal. Once getting myself to the right terminal building the bus catching part was easy. There are many men standing around all saying the name of a city under there breath. I listened for Olympos and was then suffled onto a bus that promptly drove out of the station. I hoped that it was actually the right one..

At Kadirs Treehouses (my hostel) I was greeted by "Hello, you must be Emily". What?? How do you know who I am... ah, my email. Then, "For you special price, 15 TL for single room with en-suit". That works out to about 10 CAD with breakfast and dinner included. Breakfast has been the traditional Turkish breakfast of tomatoes, cucumber, feta cheese, olives, boiled eggs, bread and honey along with omlettes. Dinner consists of soup, a grain, a main dish of beans, lentils, or a meat, a yogurt, and sometimes salad. Overall, amazing value!

Besides eating, I have been spending the last few days exploring the ruins, swimming,and bouldering on the beach. I have met a few climbers staying in the same hostel and am off to do some real climbing today. Climbing is quite new to Turkey but I believe it will soon become an internationally well known climbing destination.

Turkey?

I woke up a week ago and decided I needed to get out of Norway. With no longer working, the dark, cold, and rainy days were taking hold of me. I looked for flights to warmer, sunnier places and Antalya seemed to be the best deal. But what did I really know about Turkey? Besides the copious amounts of tea, coffee and turkish delight I was pretty knew nothing. But all of that is changing!

Yesterday I left a country of 4 million to arrive in a city of 2 million! I was expecting the worst (like Delhi) and was happy to not be greeted by too many pushy salesmen, taxi drivers, or hotel owners. I found my pension situated in the old town (Kaleiçi) and found myself a kebab. I think my waiter was most happy about the fact I went to his resturant. He told me he knew of a nice quiet club were we could have a drink and talk. Then went on to say I did not have to go back to Canada but could instead get a house with him, hahaha. The offer of the quiet club has come up with more waiters along with many sit downs over tea and coffee. But not taking anything they say seriously, all is good.

Today I was woken by Islamic prayer calls and went for a long run to the beach. It was already warm out (when wearing long sleeves and long shorts) and a dip in the Mediterranean was lovely. I spent the rest of the day exploring the bazaars, ruins, museums and soaking in the sun. I have many pictures to go along with this but I have seem to have taking the wrong cord... Hopefully off to Olympus tomorrow to live in a tree house, visit eternal flaming rocks and do some climbing.